Next year's story arc to "change the face of the game"

somtaawkhar

So in episode 414 of Priority One Podcast
http://priorityonepodcast.com/po414/
Beginning around 1:12:30, Al Rivera makes the comment of
"Next year's story arc, its more then just a story arc, its going to change the face of the game.... I'm not going to play 100 questions with you on what is going to change, but we are changing something significant in the game as a result of the arc we are telling and how it will... I mean its not like hey we are on Nintendo now kind of changing the game kind of thing or now you have bridge commander gameplay, but there is a significant change to the game, and I think we are hoping to make a group of players that have been unhappy, happy."


So what do you think it will be? Some sort of exploration system? A PVP revamp? What group of players that might be unhappy do you think they will be making happy next year?

Other interesting but unrelated bits of info
-Al once again made the remake of Cryptic only having one or two major story ideas left for STO before the arrival of all these new Trek shows gave them more to work with.
-They do plan to rework the Reputation system, and several other game systems, to streamline them and reduce the bloat.
-They already have another Trek actor on the books for a future mission.
-They have some crazy *computer beeping* planned for the 10th anniversary.

seaofsorrows

To the best of my knowledge, the most unhappy groups are people who want exploration and people who want PvP.

I honestly don't see them putting those resources into PvP, I just don't see the return on investment being there, so I am leaning toward some type of exploration system which would be highly welcomed.

Good to hear that there is another Trek Actor coming on board at some point, the recent work with the DS9 and Discovery cast has been some of the best work they have ever done. Overall, the story arcs have been highly satisfying and I look forward to that trend continuing going forward.

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seaofsorrows

somtaawkhar wrote: »

seaofsorrows wrote: »

I honestly don't see them putting those resources into PvP, I just don't see the return on investment being there, so I am leaning toward some type of exploration system which would be highly welcomed.

I see it the opposite way TBH.

Appeasing the "exploration" group would require developments in procedural generation technology that simply don't exist, and probably wont exist for another decade. There would be a much worse ROI in trying to do exploration because they would be dumping money into something that is largely unfeasible to begin with.

PVP on the other hand, while it may have the smaller of the two fanbases, is actually something that is technically doable with the available tech in the industry in general. PVP would probably be the better investment because its actually something accomplishable.

A PvP revamp would not 'change the face of the game' though, not even close. I think it's pretty safe to assume that's not what he's talking about. It would have to be something that would be significant to the game overall which is why I am leaning toward something exploration based.

Neither one of us have any idea how that would be implemented, there is no way of knowing right now how Cryptic plans to accomplish this, assuming that the guess is even right.

baldrick8

While PvP enthusiasts have been neglected for some time and surely qualify as a 'group of players', it's probably too small a minority.

Personally, I'd be happy with some sort of exploration system in the game but that'd be a tall order technologically.

Who else has been unhappy for quite some time - Non-Fed players?

asuran14

Could it be a revamp to how team play is handled in the game, and even to some degree how ships an careers work. A shift to make team play more important an content that emphasis the need for team play, not just something like the trinity but just that it is less about damage an more about the group working together to progress the mission i mean could be quite a big change to the face of the game. Also seeing some changes to the end-game to be less of just a grind for gear thru doing stfs alone, and more large scale fleet based combat that might take some ques from raids an larger scale conflicts could also change the face of the game. Yet that statement the dev made is just vague an open ended enough that almost anything could fit that has been neglected, and has alot of people that enjoy it.

protoneous

No idea what it'll be but certainly is interesting. Thanks for posting the info.

thay8472

a group of players that are unhappy? which group?

avoozuul

I hope the "another trek actor" is Patrick Stewart.

redvenge

somtaawkhar wrote: »

Al Rivera makes the comment of: "Next year's story arc, its more then just a story arc, its going to change the face of the game.... "

So what do you think it will be? Some sort of exploration system? A PVP revamp? What group of players that might be unhappy do you think they will be making happy next year?

A new splash screen. Probably one with dutch angles and excessive lens flares.

thay8472 wrote: »

a group of players that are unhappy? which group?

Neglected fans of the Terran Empire and the Borg.

Next year will be the BIGGEST EVENT EVER: the Terran Emperor vs the Borg Queen in a deadly cage match.

thay8472

Hmmm Mirror Borg crossover to escape the wrath of the Terran Empire? They then bump into the Prime Borg and quickly assimilate there way across the DQ.

The Alliance must then beg for the Terran Empire to help them?

theraven2378

thay8472 wrote: »

Hmmm Mirror Borg crossover to escape the wrath of the Terran Empire? They then bump into the Prime Borg and quickly assimilate there way across the DQ.

The Alliance must then beg for the Terran Empire to help them?

It would be nice if we meet our counterparts

artan42

T6 Typhoon Class?​​

postagepaid

Maybe they're trying to hype up the return of romulans ships.

Giving us something to do to help fight the torrent of R&D mats that doesn't involve the current timesinky nonsense.

Or maybe simply a move away from the mindset that ships=content.

questerius

thay8472 wrote: »

a group of players that are unhappy? which group?

Everyone will be flying a Tier 6 reskinned Nova that expansion simply because no other ships will be available.

peterconnorfirst

They will move on from Discovery related content to Picard related content. A respective new loading screen will change the face of the game and make players who have been unhappy with Discovery stuff happy.

I can assure everybody it will be a totally different game.

nightken

yeah, I can't think anything they would actually do that would change the face of the game, so just trying to build hype?

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lordgyor

Either a return of exploration content or a return of a new version of the foundary.

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heler1701

Change the "face" of the game. Not the game itself
To me - that may mean the "look" of the game.
Port to a new engine, maybe. Newer graphics?
And I would think that is they are talking about something that is game wide, its not going to be something mid to high end only. Level 1 to 65 all inclusive...

stostargatewars

Well mid 2020 is the next expansion release if they follow past releases.

warpangel

A PvP revamp wouldn't be part of the story, so it's probably not that. They're definitely not going to make any kind of faction war since we've already seen the future, the factions are going to stay united.

Exploration it could well be.

I'm rooting for defactionalization.

sheldonlcooper

yeah competitive rep was for pvp and it attempted to force pvp as far as I think they would be willing to go.

i'd love to see it be exploration.

but maybe more klingon stuff. they've been pretty unhappy.

baddmoonrizin

The current Discovery arc has been about building up this idea of J'Ula as a new threat in 2410, which we haven't seen yet. My bet is a coming Klingon Civil War, which destabilizes the Alliance.

tousseau

Hmm... Something to change the face of the game?

A new game engine perhaps? Or, STO 2?

kiralyn

baddmoonrizin wrote: »

The current Discovery arc has been about building up this idea of J'Ula as a new threat in 2410, which we haven't seen yet. My bet is a coming Klingon Civil War, which destabilizes the Alliance.

Which would make the "upset players" the non-Fed ones who are annoyed that everything is either Fed or multi-faction stuff? /hmm


----
"Change the face of the game"

It's all been just a dream, and your characters are actually TV studio execs trying to manage a long-running franchise across multiple media! TV Studio Sim 2020!

theraven2378

There's still Killy to hunt down

warpangel

kiralyn wrote: »

baddmoonrizin wrote: »

The current Discovery arc has been about building up this idea of J'Ula as a new threat in 2410, which we haven't seen yet. My bet is a coming Klingon Civil War, which destabilizes the Alliance.

Which would make the "upset players" the non-Fed ones who are annoyed that everything is either Fed or multi-faction stuff? /hmm

If they did start faction-locking content, which I seriously hope they never do, it would most likely still favor Fed. The "unprofitable" faction would just be forbidden from playing it.

It would, after all, be a stupid move to appease the few klingon players who complain about the faction agnostic content being "too Fed" at the expense of upsetting the Fed majority who like the content and don't want releases slowed to a crawl by splitting them between factions.

xyquarze

Don't get your hopes up too high. I doubt that most of us will consider a change this late in the game that major.